Wyoming Cowgirls Stay Undefeated at Home, Crush South Dakota Mines 87-38

Chaundra Sewell recorded her fifth double-double of the season to lead the Cowgirls past South Dakota Mines, 87-38, on Thursday night in Laramie.

Eight minutes into the game it was all tied up at 11 with UW shooting less than 27 percent, having made just 4-of-15 shots from the field and 1-of-5 from beyond the arc. The Cowgirls pushed the ball inside where they found easier shots against the shorter Lady Hardrockers, pushing their advantage to 37-20 by halftime on 18 points in the paint.

"I think in the first eight minutes we were just content to just shoot the basketball," said Wyoming head coach Joe Legerski. "Some nights the ball is going in, which it did in the second half, then it makes life easier, but we did establish ourselves on the inside and that was important for this game."

South Dakota Mines came out in the second half with a zone defense, but the Cowgirls opened the half with three consecutive 3-pointers and built on their lead from there.

"When... we hit our our first three shots, all three-threes, it just really relaxes everyone," said Legerski. "We got everyone several minutes being able to play. I thought Brenna Freeze played well off the bench tonight, I thought Marquelle Dent played very well off the bench and just in general I thought everyone gave us a lift and that's what we wanted this game for... it gave everyone an opportunity to step on the floor."

Thirteen Cowgirls saw playing time in their highest scoring game of the season, led by Sewell with 20 points and 10 rebounds in just 23 minutes of play. Kaitlyn Mileto finished with 11 points while Ashley Sickles, Kayla Woodward, Fallon Lewis and Freeze each tallied 8 points. The Cowgirls shot 52.5 percent (32-61) from the field, 47.1 percent (8/17) from beyond the arc and 71.4 percent from the free throw line. UW grabbed 50 rebounds to just 29 for SDM, who Wyoming held to 25.8 percent (16/62) shooting.

The Cowgirls will open Mountain West play on the road at Boise State on Wednesday, January 9th. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. with coverage starting on KOWB at 6:30 p.m.

"I'm ready for it," said Sewell about the start of conference play. "We feel like we're playing well and we want to take the momentum that we have right now right into conference play."